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How do we solve note taking?
I've always struggled taking notes. For personal projects and ideas, I love the creativity of clean sheets of paper. And for a one-off project, I'd happily use a nice notepad or journal. But recently I started a new job, and with it I have many actions to track, ideas, projects, issues and conversations.
So now I think note taking needs to be a structured part of my life. But I can't (yet) make it work for me and stick.
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Kaizen (non-resolutions for 2021)
Do you have non-resolutions for 2021? Here's mine:
Only eat when hungryI eat what's on my plate. When I'm bored I eat to entertain myself. I eat good food because it's good. My 1% change will be to eat only when I'm hungry. Obvious for some, a small step in the right direction for me.
Go outdoors every dayEspecially with lockdown and remote working, I can go whole days without leaving the house.
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My six-word memoir
With this limitation, you really have to filter your life to what you deem most important.
So here's mine: Out migrant engineer, cooks and codes.
I might amend it over time, but will keep all the revisions here.
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A weekend out in Licola, Heyfield and Eildon
We bought a car! And it needed to stretch its legs. So we went beyond Melbourne to see what it could do on the tracks.
We stopped at The Railway Hotel, Heyfield. And then on the way back (10h + driving) had a cup of tea on the stove in the hills.
A day out in the new car on the tracks!
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A project I'll complete with my hands
This week's agon: "Identify one project youd like to complete with your hands, whether chore or craft."
Hmm. I actually really like hobbies like that, my Dad and Grandfather both obsessed about woodwork, my Dad brought me up on DIY and there's no way that being hands-on didn't contribute to me taking up electronics later in life, following Lego and Mechano.
So what am I going to do? I have two ideas.
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My new extension: Automatic Tasks for Panic's Nova
I built a little extension for Panic's Nova editor, which finds all the scripts you've defined in composer.json and package.json and automatically exposes them as Nova Tasks, so you can just select and press run!
I did it because it seemed lacking from Nova (VS Code and Atom both have this built in, or as a pre-installed extension) and I wanted it.
Today there are 2368 installed versions of it and, frankly, I'm chuffed!
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Australia Mk2
The plan was to move to New Zealand for a couple of years, being mobilised by the project I'm consulting on. The trouble is, the work-life balance there (on the project) isn't great, and I didn't travel half way around the world to continue working 12h days and spending the rest commuting.
So we're staying in Australia. After a year of lockdowns and Covid, and watching Australia pass by the window, we have rented a house in the 'burbs (pros/cons to be confirmed) with a solar-heated pool, covered outdoor dining area, outdoor speakers and much more space.
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I researched robot vacuums so you don't have to
I searched through so many options, dumb ones, cheap ones, AI ones... and settled on the Deebot Ecovacs T8+. Why? Because it represents a good robot with all the features at a central price-point. It also has an optional self-emptying mechanism, and it was on sale.
Am I happy with the decision? Yes. It's amazing. Forget for a moment all of the clever technical stuff (the websites are definitely built for intrigued geeks and not practical home-tidiers).
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Post-Covid Winter in Victoria
Edit: 😂 how foolish was I. We entered Stage 2 (freedom to travel in Victoria, provided we didn't share facilities) and quickly entered Stage 3 again and then Stage 4. It's now September 2020 and we're still on Stage 4 restrictions.
Having been trapped for months in the house, we're allowed to now travel within state. We found a campervan at a bargain basement price and headed out for a long weekend into the Victorian countryside.
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I built a little Laravel Valet project listing tool
Today I lost track of the projects I was working on and got decision paralysis as a result, so I thought Id create this little helper.
It provides a list of the websites being worked on, based on some config, and displays them prettily for use as a default tab/quick bookmark in your web browser.
Theres probably a million out there, but I thought Id open source it anyway. Feel free to check it out at GitHub.
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My thoughts on working abroad as a migrant
Born a Briton, I have lived and worked in France and Australia as a migrant worker. I thought Id share the stories with you, in terms of the practicalities and the experiences. So how did I get through the net? In both cases I leveraged a degree in Engineering, recognised by the Washington Accord, and relevant skilled experience, gained in respected businesses and fields. Other than those, France and Australia had different requirements.
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Don't make espresso cream soda
Heres what you need to know about my new creation: espresso cream-soda. Dont make it, dont drink it.
What was supposed to be a fun, fizzy and refreshingly cold coffee drink was in fact more like taking a latte and then putting it through a SodaStream: disgusting and a waste of cream soda.
If you do try, remember to put the espresso in first otherwise you make a brown cream soda bomb, which takes ages to clear up.
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Last stop in the UK before moving to Australia: a tour of Scotland
Prior to flying to Melbourne to live for a while, we decided that we'd visit one of our favourite places: Scotland! Rented a motor home and drove hundreds of miles in a big, awesome loop.